Warmington rejects report he resigned, says PM fired him

By Clinton McGregor    

 

Embattled Member of Parliament Everald Warmington has rejected the statement from the Office of the Prime Minister that he resigned from the Cabinet.

 

In an interview with TVJ News on Tuesday, Mr. Warmington said he was fired by Prime Minister Andrew Holness over his controversial comments last week, where he threatened to withhold funds from a PNP councillor. 

 

"I was fired. The PM said to me...that because of civil society, he can't keep me there. But at the same time, he asked me to go in the field to work for the party, for his next election. The question I asked, if civil society can't accept me as part of his cabinet, how then civil society will accept me working in the field to elect him again as Prime Minister?" the former minister told reporter Kelesha Williams. 

 

Rebutting the suggestion that the Prime Minister's hands may have been tied due to mounting pressure, Mr. Warmington retorted: "I saw no chain or rope on his hands." Despite this, he suggested Mr. Holness was forced to take action by civil society and "some others in the Labour Party". 

 

The former Works Minister, asked why he made the controversial comments about not channelling state funds to the PNP councillor in his St. Catherine South Western constituency, insisted: "Because it's my mouth, I don't ask you permission to speak. I don't pay licence on my mouth, darling."